A belt of the kind referred to above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,621 and comprises a fabric of warp fibers and weft fibers. The belt has an outer paper side which faces toward the corrugated board to be manufactured. The paper side lies against the corrugated board and the belt has a driven side lying so as to face away from the corrugated board. Tension forces are introduced into the fabric belt via the driven side thereof.
In known corrugator machines, the corrugated board lies between two fabric belts and is pulled through a heating and pressure zone whereat the bonding of the individual layers of the corrugated board takes place. On the one hand, an adequate heating power is to be supplied in order to ensure the necessary temperature for liquefying the adhesive between the layers and, on the other hand, an adequate pressure is to be supplied which ensures a distribution of the adhesive between the layers and the reliable fixation of the layers to each other.
In order to provide a corrugator machine having a high manufacturing capacity, the following are needed: an adequate heating power must be available in the heating and pressure zone; an adequate pressure must be applied to the corrugated board; and, the transport speed through the heating and pressure zone must be correspondingly adapted. If the transport speed is increased, the heating power and the pressing power must be increased so that an adequate adhesion is ensured. The friction loss, however, increases between the fabric belt, which runs with the corrugated board through the heating and pressure zone, and the press shoes of the individual pressure elements. This increased friction power must be compensated by an increased drive power of the corrugator machine.
An increase in power of a corrugator machine can only be achieved via a higher drive power in order to balance out the increased pressure, which is needed to increase manufacture, and the accompanying friction loss between the fabric belt and the pressure shoe.